WAITING AND WISHING

The best thing about using the Africa Twin as the platform for a dirt-dedicated adventure bike is that it really
doesn’t take that much. The performance is excellent in
stock form. The bike just needs a few items that allow a
shift in focus, meaning more dirt and less pavement, and
those products are only becoming available now. When
we tested the stocker earlier in the year, the single biggest
revelation to us was the Dual-Clutch Transmission (DCT).
This has been an option on several of Honda’s street
models for years, and we never gave it much thought.
It seemed aimed towards beginners, and the hard-core
pavement crowd scoffed at the idea. Man, were we in
for a treat. The DCT makes a massive 1000cc street bike
much more manageable off-road. The tall first gear and the
constant worry about stalling are issues that just evaporate. If you aren’t familiar with the feature, it’s very simply
an automatic clutch and transmission. You have several
modes to manage how sharply the clutch engages and
what rpm level it chooses to shift into the next gear. If the
fact that we love the DCT brands us as novices, we wear
the title without shame. It makes dirt on a big bike much
more enjoyable.

Honda also did an excellent job with traction control,
similar to what KTM did two years ago with the 1190. The
one area that Honda didn’t address was suspension. KTM,
BMW and Yamaha have all developed their own system
to alter the suspension settings from the saddle. Face
it, there’s no way that street suspension can work in the
dirt. Honda’s settings are a very good compromise, but a
compromise nonetheless. IMS took the bike to Precision
Concepts to shift the bike more towards the dirt end of
the spectrum. Bob Bell already has a background building
suspension for real rally bikes, so he knew exactly what to
do. Next, the bike was used as the prototype for GPR to
develop a steering stabilizer mounting kit. The GPR4 bar
risers fit right under the stock handlebar. The bike also got
the very first Alt Rider skid plate. It’s quite a work of art.
The plate mounts in four places, leaves access to the oil
filter and preserves almost all the ground clearance.

A new feature on this bike that we haven’t seen anywhere else is the wheelset from Dubya. We love the idea
of having a second set of wheels for an adventure bike. It
means you don’t have to sacrifice your DOT knobbies on
the pavement. You can leave the stock street tires on the
stock street rims and save your set of Continental TKC80s